What Sketch App should do to fit into the UX design process

I’ve been enjoying using Sketch App for UI design because of its simplicity. Sketch feels easy and lightweight. It concentrates on UI design. It is a great design tool. However, it only fits certain parts of the design process nowadays. Now designs are never an after-thought. It is a process that permeates every part of the product development. Designs are shared, reviewed, iterated, often by put out there in front of the teammates. Unfortunately, those scenarios are left out in Sketch.

No matter how easy Sketch is, it is an isolated desktop design tool. This makes designers waste time dealing with trivial tasks like updating teams, transferring files, creating redlines which would have been spent on creating beautiful interfaces. Here are some features that I wish Sketch could do to cover the design process seamlessly.

1. Introduce a cloud space for saving files

When I say cloud, I am not talking about the cloud feature that is in beta currently. That’s good, for review. What I mean here is a cloud space where all your files are saved, like all the Google Docs are saved in the Google Drive; all the InVision files are saved in the cloud. And you can decide what to share, who to share and when to share. With this, you can ensure all your sketch files are synced and are up-to-date all the time across the team. No need to worry about updating the team with most recent files anymore. For teams that are using cloud services like Dropbox or Box, there could be an option to link the space with Dropbox or Box account.

2. The ability to add comments and keep the design review conversation in one place

Currently, designs are shared locally as PDFs or .png files. It would be nice if I can send a URL to my developers and from there they can check out the designs. Whatever changes made on the design will be updated automatically so that the developers can use the same URL to see the most recent designs. They can add comments so that discussion are kept in one place contextually.

3. Simpler Design hand-off

Currently, designers either use a third-party app like Zeplin or use Sketch plugin like “Sketch Measure” to create a redline overlapping the designs to hand off the specs to developers. The former is much convenient than the later for obvious reasons, especially the ability to discuss specs with teammates. However, wouldn’t it be super helpful to allowing the team to view the design, check out the specs and discuss them all in the same place? This solves the needs to jump back and forth between different apps and keeps conversations all in one place.

4. Support Multi-designer editing

Sketch App is a design tool for individual designers. It is hard for multiple designers to work on the same file. It has been years that teams can work on the same document, or project management tools online in real-time, design tools are still isolated and offline. Apple has also announced iWork recently to embrace team collaboration. It would be awesome if multiple designers can editing on the design at the same time.

All those features, teams can collaborate on the design easily. They can design, review, comment, or edit design in real-time. These are going to help Sketch to remain competitive. After all, this is a market where it is getting crowded with many players like Zeplin, Figma, UXPin, Webflow.